Imaginary Friend
by Lolsome-o-sis girl
Summary: Rhydian Morris is Maddy's imaginary friend from childhood, just a figment of her imagination. Or so she thinks... ONE-SHOT! Disclaimer, I own nothing :) Rated T for a couple of swear words - nothing much.


**Imaginary friend**

**Summary: Rhydian Morris is Maddy's imaginary friend from childhood, just a figment of her imagination. Or so she thinks.**

* * *

_(Maddy is five; Rhydian is six)_

"Bye, Mammy!" Maddy calls, as she bounds out of the back door, her Dora the Explorer rucksack banging softly against her back.

"Don't go too far, Maddy," Emma replies from the kitchen sink, where she is watching Daniel trying - and failing - to repair one of the taps. "Remember, you've got school today."

"I won't!" The child closes the door behind her, before skipping her way across the grass, breaking out into a run as she pushes her way into the woods.

It's a beautiful autumn morning in late October - five year old Maddy's favourite time of the year. Deep red leaves flutter down from the trees, swirling past her eyes, like bright, crimson-coloured fairies dancing on the light breeze.

She would have continued to run through the woods forever, but, well, being five years old does have its disadvantages sometimes. Panting, she slumps at the foot of a large oak, surrounded by a soft blanket of red and yellow leaves that have fallen from the great tree. Absentmindedly, she picks one of them up and twirls it around in between her tiny fingers, admiring its subtle beauty.

Her wandering daydreams are interrupted by the gentle sound of footsteps padding on the ground. Her head snaps up, eyes wide with curiosity, as a peculiar smell fills her nose. Wolfblood...but not like one she's ever smelt before.

A boy about her age comes to a stop before her, dressed in dark, rumpled clothes, blonde hair falling over a pair of bright blue eyes.

They stay still, observing each other in silence for a few moments.

"Hello," she says slowly.

"Hello..." He replies with the same uncertainty. "...Smelly girl."

She pouts. "Who are you calling smelly?"

A smirk plays on the corners of his mouth. "You."

She opens her mouth to retaliate, before snapping it shut again, huffing, which only makes the boy's smile widen, maddeningly. Angrily, she grabs another leaf off the ground and twirls it around between her thumb and forefinger, pressing her lips together and pretending to be fascinated with it to avoid conversation.

"Do you like leaves?"

She looks up, surprised. "What?"

He repeats the question, and, after a few seconds of initial shock, she nods. "I love leaves. And trees. And everything else in the woods."

"Me too." He moves to sit beside her. "I've never seen you before. Are you new?"

"We live in the house over there." Maddy points in the direction she has come from, just through a small cluster of trees.

"We?" He looks confused.

"Me, Mammy and Daddy." She frowns slightly. "I've never seen you before either. Where do you live? I thought I knew all the children in Stoneybridge."

"I live here."

"Here?" Her face is creased in confusion. "You live in the woods?"

"Yes." His reply is firm. "So?"

Maddy says nothing for a moment, before smiling to herself.

"I'd love to live in the woods."

"Really?"

"Yes! Then, I could always be near the leaves and the trees and I could run all around the woods and Mammy wouldn't worry."

"Oh."

They sit in comfortable silence for a long pause, before the boy jumps up.

"Do you want to play with me?"

"Play what?" She gets up too.

"Horses."

"Horses? I've never played that before." She looks interested. "How do you play it?"

"You find a branch from one of the trees," he begins, pulling a small branch down from the tree next to him to demonstrate. "And, then, you run around on it, like it's a horse." He smiles proudly. "Me and my friend Jana made it up."

Maddy smiles, before moving to find a "horse" of her own to ride on. She turns back, suddenly.

"Wait, what's your name?"

"What's yours?"

"Madeline. Nobody calls me that, though. Only Mammy, when she's in a bad mood. Most of the time, I'm Maddy. What are you called?"

He pauses for a moment, before answering.

"Rhydian."

"I like it." Her comment takes him by surprise.

"I like yours too," he says after a moment, offering up a smile.

Maddy's cheeks flush red, pleased. "Thank you."

They find branches and, for the next hour, they run around the small clearing in the woods, shrieking and whooping every time they pass one another - Rhydian often outruns his "horse" whilst doing this.

The excitement comes to a dramatic end, however, when Maddy trips over her shoe laces and tumbles, head first, down a large slope, scraping her knee against a rock that juts out of the pathway. Her leg blazes, enough to make tears come to her eyes, but she does not let them fall, blinking furiously to stop them escaping.

Rhydian hurries over, noticing her sudden absence. When he sees the state of her knee, he disappears from view, returning two minutes later with a small brown bottle and something that looks like a maple leaf.

"What's that?" Maddy asks, trying to keep her voice under control, as Rhydian bends down next to her, pouring a few droplets of the syrupy substance onto the leaf.

"It's a special healing cream," he replies. "Mummy makes me carry some everywhere I go, in case I hurt myself."

"Why don't you go to a doctor if you hurt yourself?" Maddy says, confused, as Rhydian dabs the leaf over her scraped knee. "My Daddy had to do that once. He hurt his finger trying to put up a shelf in my bedroom. But, he hit his finger with the hammer and the shelf fell down, and he refused to put up another one, so Mammy had to do it."

"My Mummy doesn't like doctors," Rhydian replies, watching her tense posture relax, as the pain fades from her injury.

"Why not? Everyone likes doctors!" Maddy looks confused. "They make you better, don't they?"

"Why would we need a doctor for that? Mummy says that our pack healers already know everything."

"They must be very clever if they know more than doctors."

"I think they are too," Rhydian agrees, before handing her a few more syrup-covered leaves, wrapped in a crumpled tissue.

"Are these for me?" Maddy looks surprised.

"In case you need them. Mummy says to put one on your cut every half an hour," Rhydian informs her, sounding pleased at his amount of medical knowledge, however miniscule. As he helps Maddy to her feet, the sound of a voice echoes through the trees, loud enough for the two young Wolfbloods to hear.

"Maddy? Where are you? It's time for school!"

"Coming, Mammy!" Maddy calls back, before turning to Rhydian, who is still holding her hand. "I have to go now. Mammy says that I can't be late to school."

Rhydian's face creases. "Why?"

"I don't know. But, it's very important." Maddy nods seriously.

"Will you come back?"

"Yes! Can I come back and play tomorrow? Will you still be here?"

"I think so."

"MADELINE!"

The sound of Emma's voice, closer this time, sends the two children scattering off in different directions. Maddy grabs her rucksack from the ground, carelessly brushing at the ton of dirt that is now smeared over her lacy, white shirt. She turns once she is almost out of the clearing.

"Goodbye, Rhydian!" She waves.

"Bye bye, smelly girl." A teasing smile flickers over his face. Maddy giggles, before hurrying on her way, coming face to face with her mother, almost bowling into her and falling over for the second time that morning.

"There you are!" Emma catches her daughter before she topples to the ground. "Dear God, what have you done to this shirt?" Maddy looks down at her muddy clothing, and then looks back up.

"I fell over playing Horse," she says innocently. Emma rolls her eyes affectionately and takes her daughter's grubby hand, leading her back to the house to clean up in time for school.

"Mammy?" Maddy asks, as Emma bundles her into the back of the jeep, now in clean clothes and a plaster on her knee. "Do you know any families that live in the woods?"

Emma frowns, looking concerned. "No. Why'd you ask, little cub?"

"No reason," Maddy replies, frowning in bewilderment, as Emma gets into the jeep to drive her to school.

All through the journey, Maddy thinks about the strange boy in the woods.

Emma drops her off at the school playground, but Maddy is distracted for once. She wanders aimlessly by the hopscotch drawn on the ground, until, suddenly, she sees a small crowd, just p ahead of her. Four girls stand in a circle, one in the middle, the others surrounding her. Maddy recognises them all from her class, and watches as they poke and prod at the girl in the centre, who looks like she is about to cry. Warily, Maddy starts to move closer.

"Freak!" One of the spectators chortles, making Maddy stop suddenly, surprised.

"Your hair is disgusting!" Another girl, a blonde, taunts, linking arms with the other two girls, as one of them kicks the surrounded girl in the shins. Maddy sees tears start to fall from the girl's eyes, as the onlookers cackle and move on, bored for the moment.

Fumbling around in her bag, she finds the carefully wrapped parcel of leaves and hurries over to the girl, who is now hugging her knees, crying. However, she looks up, as Maddy comes over.

"Let me help you," Maddy says shyly, bending down beside her fellow class mate, just as Rhydian had done with her. She begins to copy his actions, gently dabbing the leaf onto the girl's shin. "Does that feel better?"

The girl nods, smiling nervously from behind a curtain of ginger hair, before holding out a hand.

"Shannon," she introduces.

"Hello, Shannon," Maddy smiles, taking her hand. "I'm Maddy."

* * *

_(Maddy is seven; Rhydian is eight)_

"Happy birthday, Mads!" Shannon presents a small bag from under the table, smiling shyly at her best friend's excited face.

"What is it?" Maddy asks eagerly, her paper hat sliding down over her eyes.

"Why don't you open it and see, little cub?" Emma suggests, smiling, leaning over the small collection of birthday cards propped up on the kitchen table. "More lemonade, Shannon?"

"Yes, please," Shannon replies, as Maddy pulls off the brightly coloured wrapping paper and studies the box, squealing.

"A camera! Thank you, Shan!" The two girls exchange an awkward hug draped over the table, as Maddy speaks. "This is great! I love it!"

"I knew how much you wanted one," Shannon replies, pleased at her friend's reaction. Maddy's grin widens, as she snaps her first photo - Shannon pulling a face as the flash goes off, making Maddy collapse into a heap of giggles.

She takes a few more pictures whilst Shannon is there, but, after her friend has been picked up, Maddy takes the camera out into the woods, eager to get photographing straight away, whilst it is still light enough to do so. A fine layer of frost covers the ground, making Maddy skid as she darts lightly through the woods, pausing momentarily to snap a picture. She stops for breath properly, once she reaches the great oak, now leafless. It's her favourite place in the whole woods. In the whole of Stoneybridge, come to think of it. Raising the camera to her eye, she snaps the image. Now, she can enjoy her favourite place whenever she likes.

"What are you doing, smelly girl?"

She whirls around at the familiar voice, meeting a pair of blue eyes. Her mouth stretches into a wide grin.

"Hello, Rhydian!"

His grin is just as wide. "Happy birthday."

"How'd you -?" She begins, before realising that she is still wearing the enormous **'I AM 7 TODAY!'** badge that Shannon had made her wear to school that day. "Oh."

"Sorry I missed the paper hats," Rhydian says. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Yes. My friend Shannon came round and she gave me a camera. See? I came out to take a picture of the oak tree. It's my favourite place."

"Mine too."

"It was where we played Horse for the first time. Remember?" Maddy smiles at the memory.

"I remember. You fell over and I made you better," he says, sounding triumphant at this recollection, spinning around manically on a piece of frost.

"And you gave me the leaves," Maddy says. "If it wasn't for you, I may have never become friends with Shannon."

Rhydian rolls his eyes. "Fate waits for no one. That's what my friend Jana says."

"Jana sounds...nice," Maddy says vaguely. She hasn't heard much about this elusive friend of Rhydian's, and, to be honest, she doesn't want to.

"She is. She's funny too." Rhydian sits at the foot of their tree. "I think you'd like her."

"Oh," Maddy says, secretly disagreeing with him. She tactfully changed the subject. "How old are you next birthday, Rhydian?"

"Nine," he says proudly. "I can't wait. Mummy says that I can help out the pack healers when I'm nine. I want to know how they make the special healing cream."

"The one you put on me?"

"Yeah, that one. It's secret, though...Nobody'll tell me what's in it, but, if I help the pack healers, I'll be able to find out!" He bounces up and down in his seat with excitement, making Maddy laugh.

"Is that what you want to do, Rhydian? When you grow up?"

"I don't know," he replies, serious now. "What do you want to do?"

"Err..." Maddy thinks for a long time, before speaking. "I want to be a photographer. So I can take photos and record all the wonderful parts of woods, so that everyone will love them." They sit in silence for a few moments, before Maddy, who has consumed quite a lot of E-numbers, starts to sing at the top of her voice.

"_A promise that I keep,_

_I'll never share, I'll never speak,_

_To my grave, the secret goes,_

_The beating heart, the beating heart,_

_The mystic creatures wandered far,_

_Through these veins a Wolfblood flows."_

Rhydian opens his mouth to comment – or mock, Maddy isn't sure which – but he is cut off, by the faint sound of Emma calling for Maddy, saying that it is cold, late and a school night, and if Maddy wants to pass her end of term test, she needs to do some maths homework. Maddy groans loudly.

"I don't like school," she moans. "The only good thing is playing with Shannon at play time. You are so lucky not to go to school."

"We have teachers here," Rhydian replies, as Maddy pulls herself up from the slippery ground. "They teach us how to hunt and how to survive out here."

"You don't do sums?" Maddy asks. "Or times tables? Or spellings?"

"What are times tables?" Rhydian looks confused.

"I'll teach you sometime," Maddy says, smiling at his expression.

* * *

_(Maddy is eleven; Rhydian is eleven and a half)_

"How did it go?" Is his first question, as she plonks herself down on the grass next to him, her too-big blazer slumping off her shoulders.

"Awful," she groans. "I kept getting lost all day, and I got stuck in the girl's toilets, and had to climb out of the window. Then, me and Tom got locked in the photography club room and the caretaker had to pick the locks to get us out." She sighs, slumping back against the rough bark of the tree. "Why is nothing simple anymore? You are so lucky that you don't have to go to school, Rhydian."

"I like school," he replies. "Well, I like what you taught me anyway. That was fun."

"Try sitting through it for an hour," Maddy says, closing her eyes, as if the world would just vanish if she pretends it isn't there. But, alas, she opens her eyes again, and it still is. "I hate it there. I wish I'd never gone."

"You'll like it once you get used to it, Mads," Rhydian says calmly, used to her moaning by now. "Just buckle under for a bit and you'll be fine."

"Oh, like you'd know, because you're so clever!" Maddy snaps, irritated. She sighs again suddenly. "Look, I'm sorry. I just...I HATE it. It's close to the city, and I hate the city, and I just –" She tails away, voice thick as if she's about to cry. Rhydian shuffles, awkward for a second, before putting an arm around her shoulders.

"Don't worry, Mads," he says gently, using her nickname to make her smile. "I may not know much about school, but I know about survival."

She sighs again. "I wish you could come with me. It'd be so much easier if you were there."

"And leave Jana on her own?" He shakes his head. "That is more dangerous than anything else."

"Really?" Maddy says, trying not to sound envious. She doesn't like it when Rhydian talks about his elusive friend – in fact, she never has.

And he's still talking. And she's getting even more irritated by the minute.

"I remember this one time – " Rhydian is saying, but that is as far as he gets.

"Could you just shut up about Jana?" Maddy snaps angrily. "I'm sick of hearing about her!"

"Jeez, calm down, Maddy! What the heck is wrong with you today?" He looks amused. Which makes her feel angrier, yet she doesn't truly understand why. All she knows is that she doesn't like this other girl who spends time with him, however childish those feelings may be. But, she's jealous, and deep down, she knows it. Getting up from her space, she stalks away with a huff, cutting Rhydian off yet again. Of course, she's only gotten a few steps out of sight, before she sighs in defeat, and turns back. Jana may make her jealous, but she makes Rhydian happy. Maddy's never fallen out with her friend before, and she wasn't going to let something like this change that.

"Rhydian -" she begins, breaking into the clearing. But, the place is now deserted, empty, as if no one was ever there. She calls a bit louder. "Rhydian? Rhydian!" Still, no reply, and she sighs, angry at herself for snapping at him.

"Maddy?" Tom's voice sounds behind her and she whips around to face him and his confused expression. She can't believe that she didn't sense his approach, and blushes, sheepish at being caught talking to what seems like thin air. "Who were you just talking to?"

Maddy opens her mouth, but the words die on her tongue, and she swallows.

"No one," she says finally. "Don't worry about it."

* * *

_(Maddy is fifteen; Rhydian is fifteen)_

"GROW UP, MADDY!"

"ME?" Maddy stomps her foot like a child. "GROW UP?! WHAT ABOUT YOU? YOU'RE THE ONE THAT'S BEEN OBSESSED WITH THIS BEAST ON THE MOORS FOR EIGHT YEARS!"

"AT LEAST I'M NOT THE ONE STILL CLINGING ON TO HER IMAGINARY FRIEND!"

"HE IS NOT IMAGINARY!" Maddy screams, her voice raw, as Tom clasps his head in despair. They have had this argument too many times, but, even now, Maddy still won't let go. However, that doesn't stop the seeds of doubt that whittle away in her mind. She hasn't seen Rhydian for four years now. She's been searching for him ever since, but he's never appeared. The guilt is eating her up – She knows that she probably hurt him by yelling at him, and now she's paying for it.

"OH, COME ON, MADDY, YOU'RE FIFTEEN NOW!" Shannon snaps, arms folded tightly across her chest. "NO ONE'S EVER SEEN THIS BOY, EXCEPT FOR YOU! YOU'VE DRAGGED US ON COUNTLESS HIKES THROUGH THE WOODS LOOKING FOR HIM, AND WHAT HAVE WE FOUND? NOTHING, THAT'S WHAT! IF HE WAS REAL, WE WOULD HAVE SEEN HIM BY NOW!"

"JUST BECAUSE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN HIM, DOESN'T MAKE HIM IMAGINARY!"

"YEAH, IT KINDA DOES!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" Maddy yells. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!" She storms out of the kitchen, slamming the door behind her, breaking into a run, as she threads her way through the woods to the clearing, kicking trees as she goes and cursing under her breath.

"I hate it! I hate those two! I hate that bloody school! I FUCKING hate everyone there!" She shouts angrily towards the end, her voice echoing out over the trees.

"Don't swear," a mild voice says from behind her, and she whirls around, meeting a pair of blue eyes she hasn't in what feels like forever. However, the sight of Rhydian doesn't make her feel better, even though it's what she's wanted – in fact, it only makes her feel worse.

"Where the HELL have you been?!" She demands, as he lounges against a tree, trying to keep his shoulder length blonde hair out of his eyes.

"Around," he says firmly, leaving no room for a discussion on where "Around" actually entails. "How have you been?"

"How have I been?!" The words leave her mouth through gritted teeth. "Well, Rhydian, I've been shit, thanks to you."

"What the hell did I do?"

"You disappeared! I looked for you everywhere, but you just vanished! Now, thanks to you, everyone thinks I'm insane! They all say you're my imaginary friend – Even Shannon thinks that! What am I supposed to do now, huh? No one will believe me!"

He blinks a few times after she's let it all out, before speaking. "You don't need everyone to believe you, Mads. YOU know I'm real – What more proof do you need?"

"You see, that's the thing!" Maddy is past the point of reason now, too angry at everyone to listen. "You disappeared for four years, and now, just when I was thinking about you, you turn up again! What does that say about me? That I can conjure you into existence? Or maybe you just don't exist at all and I'm wasting my breath!" She starts to sob now. "Maybe I'm just insane! Maybe I need to go to an asylum and speak to a doctor! I mean, look at me, I'm talking to thin air, for crying out loud! I-"

She doesn't get a chance to finish her tearful rant, as, at that moment, Rhydian simply move forward, and bundles her into his arms in a bone crushing hug. Her face is pressed into his grubby shirt and she cries into the material, burrowing her face away. She knows that if she carries on like this, she'll never get better. She'll never mature and truly grow up. She'll be frozen at five years old, still clinging on to the days when Rhydian seemed so real that her mind didn't even have to think about him for him to appear. Besides, no one cared back then. Back then, it was okay to have an imaginary friend. In fact, it was almost the norm. But, not anymore.

_Grow up_, a voice inside her head whispers. _Stop being so childish. This isn't real._

With that, she sucks in a deep breath and pushes his arms away, sending him stumbling backwards.

"You're not real," she says quietly, and turns, sprinting away from the clearing, leading her imaginary friend standing, frozen to the spot, blinking bewilderedly after her.

She runs and runs, until she knows that she can't run anymore, and collapses down to the ground in a heap, sobbing again. That fact doesn't surprise her though – she's just dismissed all her childhood in the blink of an eye. But, that was childhood, and this is adulthood. And she needs to be an adult now. GCSEs are looming in the distance, and, if she can't pass those, what is she going to do?

"I need help," she whispers to herself, wiping away the tears. "God, I need help..."

* * *

_(Maddy is eighteen; Rhydian is eighteen)_

The student bar is crammed with people, dancing together, studying with friends in the corner or slumped at the bar, and taking shot after shot. Maddy is nestled on a stool in the corner, away from everyone else, still not quite believing that she got into university in the first place. After the awful day when she was fifteen, when she turned her back on childhood, she had retreated into her shell, filling the empty hole in her mind with revision and exam prep. It had certainly paid off in her grades – after sixth form, she'd been whisked away to university, studying for her doctorate. It had been Tom's idea that she take up medicine, since she had been a genius when it came to GCSE Biology. And, now, two years later, here she is. A university student.

Sighing, she sips her alcohol miserably, trying not to screw up her facial features as the drink burns her throat. She thinks that she better get used to this – She has got four more years of this. Four more years of being a social hermit, she broods. Shannon had started a journalist career back in Stoneybridge, and Tom moved away to Ibiza after high school, to become a DJ. The only people she knows at university are Liam and Jimi, who are both taking up sport, despite Jimi's family business.

The band on stage finish their final song for the night, and head off the stage, as Maddy downs her glass in one, ready to leave. She's only been there five minutes as well. _You're such a misery guts_, she scolds herself. _Ridiculous_. However, as she's packing up to leave, someone else trails on stage, carrying a guitar. _Oh, great,_ she thinks, rolling her eyes. _Another one. I had enough with Sam Cameron last week. _She shrugs her coat on, preparing herself to brace the howling wind that rattles around campus, before the music starts up. At first, she doesn't listen to it, but then, she hears the words.

"_A promise that I keep,_

_I'll never share, I'll never speak,_

_To my grave, the secret goes,_

_The beating heart, the beating heart,_

_The mystic creatures wandered far,_

_Through these veins a Wolfblood flows."_

Her head snaps up towards the stage, sniffing the air. A blonde boy her age, with short hair is balanced precariously on the stool. His blue eyes are searching the crowd in the bar, until they reach hers. Her mouth drops open.

"_A change will come, I know,_

_Behold my future,_

_As sure as day returns to night,_

_The passion in my clan,_

_To be at one with them,_

_And hidden from the world outside,_

_A promise that I keep,_

_I'll never share, I'll never speak,_

_To my grave, the secret goes,_

_The beating heart, the beating heart,_

_The mystic creatures wandered far,_

_Through these veins a Wolfblood flows,_

_Through these veins a Wolfblood flows."_

Maddy waits until the song finishes, and he gets off the stage, before she grabs him by the sleeve and steers him outside. They break out into the cold, dark evening, Rhydian rescuing his guitar from almost getting trapped between the doorframe and the door.

"What are you doing here?" Maddy demands.

"Still believe that I'm imaginary, do you?" He asks, arms folded, smirking.

"Well...no," she admits. She definitely isn't crazy now. "But, what are you doing here? And...what happened to your hair?"

"I don't know." He gives a shrug. "I just decided that I was tired of living in the woods. Thought I'd use what you taught me, and try out at living as a human, like you do. This meant that my beautiful hair had to go."

"It wasn't beautiful, Rhydian," Maddy says, rolling her eyes like she is five years old again. "Not by anyone's standards."

"Jeez, you know how to flatter someone, don't you, Mads?"

She giggles, before turning serious. "I'm sorry about...You know. What happened that day."

"What, when you called me imaginary, or hurled abuse at me?"

"Err, I never hurled abuse at you."

"Calling someone imaginary is abuse to me."

"You said that already, Rhydian."

"But, you said it twice. Therefore, my point stands."

"Fine." She is never going to win this debate – She knows far too well what her not-so-imaginary-anymore friend is like. "What's with the guitar, then?"

"Just liked it. It made me look cool." He shrugs.

"You? Cool?" Maddy snickers. "Please."

"What, you don't think I'm cool, smelly girl?" He pouts, as they start to slowly make their way back to student accommodation, arms linked.

"No, Rhydian. I never have done, and I never will."

"Don't worry." He raises his eyebrow, smirking. "We've got four more years yet. I'm sure I'll change your mind."

"You usually do." Maddy smiles to herself. "You always do."

**THE END**

* * *

_**A.N: Don't worry, this isn't another story I'll never finish. It's just a (long) one shot, so I hope you enjoyed it. It was fun to write, at least. Also, I want so shout out to my bestie, **__**master of madness**__**. I hope her leg gets better soon, as long as she doesn't fall down any more steps :)**_


End file.
